Seagull Arising Star, Great Trainer
10-31-2010, 08:38 PM
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Seagull Arising Star, Great Trainer
Had my first slight with my new Seagull Arising Star.
Did not have tons of hope for it. I bought it from a guy out of the back of a truck at a fly in at my club. Figured it would be a cheap trainer for my son to learn and me to relearn landings on. And the price was very right, $70.00 for the extra large 46 size.
Opening the box was a pleasant surprise. Nicely packed with good instructions and it was extensively ARFed. Housings with push rods for all control surfaces along with same for throttle and front wheel steering. Appeared well assembled without the usual glops of glue gun goo. Aileron hinges were pinned and a motor mount that will fit most 2 and 4 strokes in the engine size range was attached. They even filed a flat in the nose gear wire and put the clevises on.
Only problem was fuse sides and center wing skinning were not made of balsa but some light weight veneer like material. Be careful cutting this stiff because it is pretty brittle.
Assembly was very quick and easy; almost fell together. The EZ connector type links for the control surfaces were a bit different so read the instructions carefully. But they do work well. Only mods I did were slather the inside center ribs with epoxy as well as the joiner and use some wider clear packing tape over the center wing joint instead of the supplied tape.
I mounted a well used but trusty Saito 50 and flew with a Master Airscrew 11 by 7 prop. Since we have a paved runway, I used the small very light factory supplied wheels. There had been some complaints on the boards about the nose gear wire bending but appears the made an improvement. Gear was very solid wire that held up just fine to a couple of bouncy landings.
Good takeoff roll and smooth liftoff at about 3/4 power. Needed some down trim to fly level at half throttle training speed. I dropped to 40% and still was stable.
Flies very smoothly. Turns easily with only a hair of up elevator for the steeper turns. My instructor did some loops, barrel rolls and a bit of inverted flight and it did well for a trainer.
Easy landings. It slows way down to idle speed without a stall or dropping a tip. Still very controllable.
I am confident enough to solo next time. I am sure son Mark will soon follow. It is a great building and flying trainer.
Tom
Did not have tons of hope for it. I bought it from a guy out of the back of a truck at a fly in at my club. Figured it would be a cheap trainer for my son to learn and me to relearn landings on. And the price was very right, $70.00 for the extra large 46 size.
Opening the box was a pleasant surprise. Nicely packed with good instructions and it was extensively ARFed. Housings with push rods for all control surfaces along with same for throttle and front wheel steering. Appeared well assembled without the usual glops of glue gun goo. Aileron hinges were pinned and a motor mount that will fit most 2 and 4 strokes in the engine size range was attached. They even filed a flat in the nose gear wire and put the clevises on.
Only problem was fuse sides and center wing skinning were not made of balsa but some light weight veneer like material. Be careful cutting this stiff because it is pretty brittle.
Assembly was very quick and easy; almost fell together. The EZ connector type links for the control surfaces were a bit different so read the instructions carefully. But they do work well. Only mods I did were slather the inside center ribs with epoxy as well as the joiner and use some wider clear packing tape over the center wing joint instead of the supplied tape.
I mounted a well used but trusty Saito 50 and flew with a Master Airscrew 11 by 7 prop. Since we have a paved runway, I used the small very light factory supplied wheels. There had been some complaints on the boards about the nose gear wire bending but appears the made an improvement. Gear was very solid wire that held up just fine to a couple of bouncy landings.
Good takeoff roll and smooth liftoff at about 3/4 power. Needed some down trim to fly level at half throttle training speed. I dropped to 40% and still was stable.
Flies very smoothly. Turns easily with only a hair of up elevator for the steeper turns. My instructor did some loops, barrel rolls and a bit of inverted flight and it did well for a trainer.
Easy landings. It slows way down to idle speed without a stall or dropping a tip. Still very controllable.
I am confident enough to solo next time. I am sure son Mark will soon follow. It is a great building and flying trainer.
Tom
